Former Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Commissioner Douglas Shulman (L) looks on as Director of Exempt Organizations for the IRS Lois Lerner delivers an opening statement to a House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing on alleged targeting of political groups seeking tax-exempt status from by the IRS, on Capitol Hill in Washington, May 22, 2013. Lerner, the IRS official who this month revealed the tax agency's targeting of conservative groups asserted her constitutional right not to answer questions before a congressional committee on Wednesday. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst (UNITED STATES - Tags: POLITICS BUSINESS) - RTXZWMB

Lois Lerner Warned Colleagues In 2013: Our Emails Are Being Stored, And Congress Is Asking For Them

Ex-IRS official Lois Lerner told colleagues that their emails were being stored and to try to be “cautious” about what they said because Congress was asking for emails.

Lerner did this in an April 2013 email released Wednesday by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.

“I had a question today about OCS,” Lerner wrote to IRS official Maria Hooke on April 9, 2013, just one month before the IRS targeting scandal broke.

“I was cautioning folks about email and how we have had several occasions where Congress has asked for emails and there has been an electronic search for responsive emails—so we need to be cautious about what we say in emails,” Lerner wrote. “Someone asked if OCS conversations were also searchable—I don’t know, but told them I would get back to them. Do you know?”

“My general recommendation is to treat the conversation as if it could/is being saved somewhere,” Hooke wrote to Lerner.

“Perfect,” Lerner replied.

Hooke is identified as director of business systems planning for the tax exempt and government entities division on 2014 documents.